Military official: U.S. airstrike hits pro-regime forces in Syria

Syria's opposition pledges not to walk away from a new round of peace talks in Geneva despite rebel defeats in Damascus and US charges of regime atrocities at an infamous prison.
Video provided by AFP
Newslook

Residents walk through damaged streets at the mountain resort town of Zabadani in the Damascus countryside, Syria, on May 18, 2017.(Photo11: Hassan Ammar, AP)

A coalition airstrike in Syria on Thursday targeted pro-regime forces who were threatening a coalition base where advisers train anti-Islamic State fighters, the U.S.-led coalition command said.

The forces came within a 34-mile defensive zone around the at-Tanf base in southern Syria, according to the command.

U.S. military officials have not yet determined if Syrian army forces were targeted in the strike or if they were militias aligned with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The airstrike targeted a tank and two earth-movers that were building fighting positions within the defensive zone, according to a military official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the strike. The Pentagon did not provide an estimate of casualties.

Officials from the U.S.-led coalition attempted to use a hotline established with the Russians to warn the Syrian government to remove the forces from near the coalition base. The Russians relayed the message to the Syrian government, but the forces did not withdraw, the official said.

The coalition aircraft also used warning shots in an effort to dissuade the forces from establishing the fighting positions near the base.

The U.S.-led coalition is battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in Syria and is generally not attacking Assad. An exception was the U.S. cruise missile strike that was launched last month in retaliation for Assad’s chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people.

Several hundred U.S. advisers are in Syria to help train and organize a loose network of opposition groups, called the Syrian Democratic Forces, to defeat ISIS. The U.S.-led coalition is also supporting the force with airstrikes.

Aside from the April cruise missile strike, the coalition-backed forces have avoided contact with Assad regime forces.

The coalition has described Thursday's strike as a defensive action that does not change the U.S. policy of focusing military efforts on defeating ISIS.

But it highlights the growing complexity of the battlefield in Syria, where multiple forces are engaged in fighting for varying reasons and amid ever-shifting alliances. The complexity heightens the risk an incident that could draw the United States and Iran deeper into the conflict.

As the Islamic State is pushed out of Iraq and Syria by U.S.-backed forces Iran has grown increasingly concerned about American influence in the region.

Iran has started using the militias they support, including Hezbollah, a Lebanese-based group, to attack the SDF, said Ahmad Majidyar, an analyst at the Middle East Institute.

People travel along a destroyed street in al-Bab on March 29, 2017 a month after Turkish-backed rebels recaptured the northern Syrian town from Islamic State group fighters.
Zein Al Rifai, AFP/Getty Images

An armed man takes position at a damaged building in Teshreen neighborhood, which lies on the frontline of the fighting with government forces, outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on April 1, 2017. Mohammed Badra, European Pressphoto Agency

A man holds a flash light and stands next to a damaged wall after airstrikes in Douma, Syria, on April 3, 2017. According to witnesses, at least 21 people were killed and over 50 were injured in airstrikes allegedly carried by forces loyal to the Syrian regime. Mohammed Badra, European Pressphoto Agency

Mohamed Ataya, a 31-year-old Syrian man known as "Abu Maher", tends to his plants on the rooftop of his damaged building in the Syrian rebel-held town of Arbin, in the eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus March 3, 2017. Ataya, who used to be a professional football player before the war, cultivates seeds for sale. Amer Almohibany, AFP/Getty Images

Mohammad Mohiedine Anis, 70, smokes his pipe as he sits in his destroyed bedroom listening to music on his vinyl player in Aleppo's formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood March 9, 2017. Joseph Eid, AFP/Getty Images

Syrian government forces advance on the eastern outskirts of Aleppo March 8, 2017 near the town of Al-Khafsah, where regime forces retook a key water pumping station the day before.
George Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

A member of the Syrian government forces fishes at lake Assad near a water pumping station they retook the day before on the eastern outskirts of Aleppo March 8, 2017. George Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian boy Ahmed, 6, sits on a damaged classroom school, in Idlib, north Syria. The U.N.'s child relief agency says at least 652 children were killed in Syria last year, making 2016 the worst year yet for the country's rising generation. UNICEF via AP

Syrians pray in the ancient Umayyad mosque in the old city of Aleppo on Dec. 17, 2016, as civilians are allowed access to some neighborhoods recently retaken by Syrian government forces. AFP/Getty Images

Syrian pro-government forces sit in the government-held old city of Aleppo on Dec. 17, 2016.
Trapped Syrian civilians and rebels waited desperately Saturday for evacuations to resume from an opposition-held enclave in Aleppo as the Red Cross pleaded for a deal to "save thousands of lives". AFP/Getty Images

Members of a Syrian family cross into Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate from Syria, near Hatay in southeastern Turkey, Dec. 17, 2016. It was not immediately clear where in Syria most people that crossed into Turkey were coming from but one woman said several people were from the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. Emrah Gurel, AP

An injured Syrian woman from Aleppo reacts as she is being transported from the Syrian side of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing to a hospital in Turkey Dec. 16, 2016. The Syrian government suspended the evacuation of the last rebel-held parts of Aleppo, but a military source denied a Russian statement that the operation was "complete." Bulent Kilic, AFP/Getty Images

Syrian rebel fighters and civilians who were evacuated from Aleppo arrive in the opposition-controlled Khan al-Aassal region, west of the embattled city Dec. 16, 2016.
Omar Haj Kadour, AFP/Getty Images

An elderly Syrian man is carried during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo Ded. 15, 2016.
A convoy of ambulances and buses left rebel territory in Aleppo in the first evacuations under a deal for opposition fighters to leave the city after years of fighting. The rebel withdrawal will pave the way for President Bashar al-Assad's forces to reclaim complete control of Syria's second city, handing the regime its biggest victory in more than five years of civil war. Karam Al-Masri, AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian, who was evacuated from Aleppo, reacts as he arrives in the opposition-controlled Khan al-Aassal region Dec. 15, 2016, the first stop on their trip, where humanitarian groups will transport the civilians to temporary camps on the outskirts of Idlib and the wounded to field hospitals.
Omar Haj Kadour, AFP/Getty Images

A member of the Syrian pro-government forces watches buses during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo Dec. 15, 2016.
A convoy of ambulances and buses left rebel territory in Aleppo in the first evacuations under a deal for opposition fighters to leave the city after years of fighting. The rebel withdrawal will pave the way for President Bashar al-Assad's forces to reclaim complete control of Syria's second city, handing the regime its biggest victory in more than five years of civil war. Youssef Karwashan, AFP/Getty Images

A Syrian woman in a wheelchair waits next to a bus during an evacuation operation of rebel fighters and their families from rebel-held neighborhoods in the embattled city of Aleppo on Dec.15, 2016.
Karam Al-Masri, AFP/Getty Images

A wounded Syrian woman from the al-Sukari neighbourhood is helped onto the back of a truck as she flees during the ongoing government forces military operation to retake remaining rebel-held areas in the northern embattled city of Aleppo on Dec. 14, 2016. George Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

Syrian civilians from the al-Sukari neighbourhood flee during the ongoing government forces military operation to retake remaining rebel-held areas in the northern embattled city of Aleppo on Dec. 14, 2016.
George Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

A member of the Syrian pro-government forces holding a Palestinian flag and flashing the sign for victory as he stands on the roof of the ancient Umayyad mosque in the old city of Aleppo Dec 13, 2016. George Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

Children play on a trampoline during the second day of Eid Al Adha in Douma, outside Damascus, Syria, Sept 13, 2016. Eid al-Adha is the holiest of the two Muslims holidays celebrated each year and marks the yearly Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) to visit Mecca, the holiest place in Islam. Mohammed Badra, European Pressphoto Agency

Jameel Mustafa Habboush, a young Syrian boy receives oxygen as he is pulled from the rubble of a building following Russian airstrikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo on October 11, 2016. Thaer Mohammed, AFP/Getty Images

An injured Syrian man receives treatment at a hospital following a reported air strike on the rebel-held northwestern city of Idlib on Sept. 29, 2016. Numerous doctors and nurses and medical facilities have been hit or targeted by missiles or air strikes since the start of the conflict in Syria in March 2011. Omar Haj Kadour, AFP/Getty Images

Syrians react as the bodies of children are pulled from the rubble of a budling following government forces air strikes in the rebel held neighborhood of Al-Shaar in Aleppo on Sept. 27, 2016. Karam Al-Masri, AFP/Getty Images

Aleppo's citadel is seen through destruction in this picture taken on Sept. 28, 2016, in the Farafira district, northwest of the city's historic citadel, after Syria's army took control of the rebel-held district after days of heavy air strikes that have killed dozens and sparked allegations of war crimes. Georges Ourfalian, AFP/Getty Images

A United Nations-backed three-phase agreement initiated in 2015 was behind the evacuation of hundreds of residents from this neighborhood in Homs, Syria, on Sept. 19, 2016. Youssef Badawi, European Pressphoto Agency

A man carries a baby after removing him from the rubble of a destroyed building following an airstrike in the Qatarji neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo on Sept. 21, 2016. Ameer Alhalbi, AFP/Getty Images

Syrian government soldiers walk in the damaged al-Farafira Souk in the government-held side of Aleppo's historic city center Sept. 16, 2016.
Violence broke out in Aleppo in mid-2012, more than a year after anti-government protests first erupted across Syria. More than five years of war have turned Aleppo, a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site home to an imposing citadel, into a makeshift military barracks. Youssef Karwashan, AFP/Getty Images

A girl walks amidst destruction during an activity organized by a charity group in Jobar, a rebel-held district on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus July 5, 2016. Amer Almohibany, AFP/Getty Images